Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson is eager to take on Top 14 giants Toulouse at home after his team’s one-sided 45-19 defeat in the Champions Cup pool game at the Stade Ernest-Wallon.
Toulouse outscored their opponents by six tries to three after holding a slender 19-12 lead at half-time, but the visitors went off the boil after the interval.
Can’t wait to play them in Manchester
Sanderson said that the margin of defeat was ‘not acceptable’ for his side, who have high ambitions, but added that he was eager to get another crack at Toulouse on Sale‘s home turf.
“Toulouse are probably the best team in the game, and we let them do too much today,” said Sanderson.
“We have work to do, but I think we can do it. I can’t wait to play them again in Manchester on a cold and rainy afternoon.
“We will have world-class players who will be back, and we have to accept defeat, but I think we are better than this score.
“Such a score is not acceptable for a team that has ambitions.”
Cards cost Sale
The Sharks’ ill-discipline cost them against the French juggernaut as Akker van der Merwe, Byron McGuigan and Tom O’Flaherty were all shown yellow cards in the defeat.
Toulouse full-back Thomas Ramos was shown a red card in the 80th minute when Sale thought they had scored a try, but by that stage, the game was well beyond saving for the Premiership club.
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Dupont not getting carried away
Toulouse captain Antoine Dupont scored twice in the win but did not want to get carried away with the result and performance.
“The conditions were perfect for playing, and it was a very positive game, but we have to be careful; we have only played two matches out of four,” said Dupont.
“We have started our competition well, but there are still two important matches to try to be at our best and have a good draw for the final stages.
“In view of Sale’s game last weekend (39-0 victory against Ulster), it would have been presumptuous to talk about attacking bonus points before the game.
“We have not always had so much offensive performance. We have already scored a lot of tries several times this season, but it hadn’t always been very structured; we had trouble finding each other. This is what is positive today.
“We were able to be pragmatic and score on turnovers but also hold the ball and be quite good on our offensive game system.”
Toulouse have a tough run of fixtures before the reverse game against Sale, with a derby match against Castres before Christmas and away games at Clermont and La Rochelle to start the new year.
Sale, meanwhile, face Newcastle Falcons and Leicester Tigers in the final two games of the year with a trip to the Stoop to face Harlequins, their first game of 2023.